|
MOUNTAIN VIEW and PALO ALTO, CA, June 4, 2001 SurroMed, Inc.
and the Palo Alto Medical Foundation (PAMF) today announced an
exclusive multi-year collaborative research agreement for biological
marker discovery and comprehensive disease phenotyping. Under
the terms of the agreement, SurroMed and PAMF will undertake clinical
phenotyping research in multiple disease areas with the objective
of identifying biological markers that have utility for diagnostic,
prognostic, monitoring and therapeutic discovery and development
applications. Rheumatoid arthritis will be the initial focus of
the collaboration, and the first clinical phenotyping study is
scheduled to begin enrollment this quarter.
The research will apply SurroMed's novel, integrated phenotyping
platform, which incorporates proprietary advanced bioanalytical
technologies for cellular, proteomic and low-molecular-weight
organic molecule profiling and analysis. SurroMed's NanobarcodesTM
technology for highly-multiplexed bioanalysis enables the capture
of tremendous amounts of biological information with micro-volume
samples. All clinical phenotyping studies will comply with applicable
federal regulations regarding clinical trials, including all requirements
for protection of patient privacy.
"Comprehensive phenotyping is fundamental to understanding
disease mechanisms and variations in disease course and response
to therapy among patients," said SurroMed CEO, Gordon Ringold,
Ph.D. "For the majority of diseases, genes are but a piece
of the puzzle. To efficiently discover, develop and intervene
with new therapeutic products in the clinic, what we really need
are biological markers that precisely define the phenotype the
state of an individual patient at a given time. SurroMed's phenotyping
technology platform provides fundamental information about disease
and enables rapid discovery of new and useful biological markers.
These biological markers will have utility for better diagnosing
and treating disease and developing new and improved therapeutic
products. The unique relationship we have established with PAMF
enables us to apply our platform in the study of chronic debilitating
diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis."
"PAMF's relationship with SurroMed is an honor to our organization,"
said PAMF President and CEO, David Druker, M.D. "SurroMed
is engaged in very exciting research with great potential and
we've been given a chance to be in on the ground floor of something
that could be tremendously successful. Participating in leading-edge
clinical research is consistent with our mission, and the outputs
of our joint research have the potential to advance dramatically
personalized patient care."
About SurroMed, Inc.
Headquartered in Mountain View, California, SurroMed uses its
integrated phenotyping and biological marker discovery platform
to better understand the root causes of disease and the factors
underlying patient-to-patient variations in disease presentation,
progression and response to therapy. Discoveries arising from
its research will enable improved, cost-efficient discovery and
development of therapeutic and diagnostic products. SurroMed's
phenotyping and biological marker discovery platform incorporates
advanced proprietary technologies for profiling and analysis of
hundreds of immune cell populations, proteins and low-molecular-weight
organic molecules (such as sugars, peptides or lipids) in small
volumes of blood and/or other biological samples. By capturing
and analyzing enormous amounts of clinical and biological information
in a massively parallel fashion to identify useful biological
markers, SurroMed plans to enable the precise diagnosis and effective
treatment of disease.
About the Palo Alto Medical Foundation
The Palo Alto Medical Foundation (PAMF) for Health Care, Research
and Education, a nonprofit organization in Palo Alto, California,
is a pioneer in the multispecialty group practice of medicine
and ambulatory care. Serving more than 400,000 patients in Northern
California, PAMF is nationally known for its innovations in treatment
methods and technology and is a leader in health education and
biomedical research. PAMF includes the Health Care Division, the
Education Division and the Research Institute. In 1993 PAMF became
an affiliate of Sutter Health, a nonprofit health-care network
in Northern California. The medical groups of the Foundation include
Palo Alto Medical Clinic (212 physicians), Santa Cruz Medical
Clinic (95 physicians) and Camino Medical Group (165 physicians).
Contacts:
SurroMed, Inc.
August Moretti
(650) 230-1574
email: [email protected]
or
Noonan/Russo Communications, Inc.
Talya Gould
(415) 677-4455 x.284
email: [email protected]
|
